Proactive Investors - Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) has committed to ending financing for new oil and gas projects and said it will reign in spending on firms involved in expanding fossil fuel production.
New finance for upstream oil and gas projects and related infrastructure will cease immediately, Barclays said in a statement on Friday.
Financing for non-diversified energy firms will be curbed from 2025 if over 10% of their long-term expenditure is set aside for expanding oil and gas production, meanwhile.
“The scale of our business gives us the opportunity to help finance the energy transition,” the statement read.
Barclays added funding would continue for energy firms investing in the likes of low-carbon technology.
According to the 2023 Fossil Fuel Finance report, Barclays was the seventh largest lender of finance to the fossil fuel industry, having provided US$190.58 billion from 2016 to 2022.
This made it Europe’s largest fossil fuel financier, though how Barclay’s spending cuts affect the industry remains to be seen given JP Morgan spent over US$400 billion alone over the same period, while Citi and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) provided more than US$300 billion each.
“Addressing climate change is a critical and complex challenge,” Barclays sustainability head Laura Barlow said,
“Today we strengthen our commitment to the energy transition, with policies that will focus our capital and resources to the energy companies that play a key role in the transition.”